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Mackeson Stout - sent 9 times

Whitbread Beer Company

Brewed since 1907 in England

3.0 % alc. vol.

This beer is one of the few surviving examples of an old southern English style of sweet stout once known as milk stout, so-called because it contains lactose, a sugar derived from milk that, since it is unfermentable, lends its character and calories to the finished beer. Contemporary labelling standards prevent the use of the term today, but the beer still wears on its label the milk churn that has been its trademark on and off since it was first brewed at Hythe, Kent, in 1907. Whitbread acquired the brand in the 1920s and eventually turned it into the market leader of its style. When I first started drinking in the 1970s it was a pub staple alongside Gold Label barley wine and bottled Guinness; it's still readily obtainable today, from Whitbread's plant at Salmesbury in Lancashire at the last count (though the label only gives the company's London address). So why did it take me 25 years to get round to trying it, and why has it taken so long to appear here? Perhaps because it has long languished under the image, unchallenged by the brewery, of being a beverage for elderly ladies and invalids, an impression reinforced by its low gravity and its former reputation for supposed nutritional value. Another deterrent to the enthusiast is that most supermarkets only stock it in canned form: bottles have to be searched out at specialist retailers and some pubs. This situation is a sad one, because Mackeson really deserves to be treasured as a heritage beer: perhaps Interbrew, who now own Whitbread and have successfully marketed offbeat specialities elsewhere, can make something of it if they don't decide to drop it altogether.
The beer is pasteurised but unfiltered, so contains some yeast debris. It pours a very dark brown, near black, with a little lacy, loose, cream-coloured head. The aroma is tarry, burnt-curranty and coffeeish, most closely resembling sweetened Turkish-style coffee, with some hints of vanilla and strawberry. The palate is very full, a little like dandelion and burdock soft drinks, and also has that Turkish coffee quality; there's some raspberryish fruit, and a definite milky texture and flavour with a sharp creaminess reminiscent of powdered milk or milk gums. The overall sweetness is well-lifted by a burst of bitter chocolate and hop bitterness on the swallow, and the beer finishes with tangy, fruity hints. Admittedly it will not be to everyone's taste, but if, like me, you have a fascination for dark sweetish beers, especially those that manage to pack a lot of complex flavour into a low gravity, but you've not yet been tempted to crack open a bottle of this one, you may be very pleasantly surprised.

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